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SANTEE – Vincent Brown and Darrell Stuckey both remember playing tag, hide-and-seek or sports outside for long hours as kids until night signaled their time to move indoors. It was in the spirit of their childhood memories that they visited Rio Seco Middle School in Santee to help motivate students to put down the video remote controls and play outside for 60 minutes.

“We’re here to motivate kids to be outside and be active,” Stuckey said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s in the morning or evening. Move around, run around, have fun and play with your friends. Growing up I loved playing outside. We played dodge ball, flag football, tackle football, you name it. At night when I had to come inside, that’s when I played video games.”

The Chargers and American Heart Association announced the launch of the NFL Play 60 Challenge for Santee School District students in 6th to 8th grade today. More than 2,200students from the district’s nine middle schools are making the pledge to be more active.

The NFL PLAY 60 Challenge is a four-week program that educates youth about the importance of staying fit. It creates an engaging and fun school environment that seeks to inspire students to be physically active for at least 60 minutes every day.

Before leading the students through some stretches, Brown and Stuckey also spoke on the importance of nutrition. Brown credits learning to eat healthy instead of eating sweets for giving him more energy and being more focused.

“Eat at least three meals a day,” Stuckey added. “It’s important to get different colors on your plate and when I’m talking about colors, I’m not talking about different color Skittles. I’m talking about vegetables, protein and grains.”

The program will culminate on March 26 and 29 with special Jr. Chargers Training Camps held at two locations in the district.

As part of the program, each school will receive health and fitness information they can integrate into their existing curriculum. Additionally, each school will plan healthy activities for students to reinforce what they are learning in the classroom. Students will also complete a “Game Planner” to track their physical activity during the four-week program.

Andrew Franco from Menifee, Calif., was announced as the local NFL Play 60 Super Bowl contest winner last week.

More than 10,000 young kids entered the NFL Play 60 Super Bowl Contest. To be eligible, they pledged to be active for 60 minutes a day and answered questions about the importance of health and fitness.

Franco wrote about how his family changed their eating habits by eating fresh fruits and vegetables. The family is making time to walk, jog, hike and take bike rides together.

Philip Rivers is 11-year-old Franco’s favorite player and he points to Rivers as his motivation to be healthier.

“Philip Rivers inspires me because I’m also a quarterback for my team and I was not eating healthy,” Franco said. “Rivers inspired me to change my habits on eating and keeping fit. I see how he has been a great athlete and I want to be just like him. I’ve changed my eating habits tremendously and I have already seen improvement on the field.”

Franco will receive an NFL PLAY 60 prize pack and two tickets to a Chargers 2012 regular season game. Read